Actually, it's interesting that you mention it, because, well, my music usually goes through a very long writing process, full of editing and revising, and usually the music starts out purely as music for music's sake, but every now and then a piece of music will come to embody something other than just music, and then I start to see the music in a "programatic" context.

I have casual interests in history and literature, so oftentimes those will shine through when I start to think in terms of my music "meaning" anything.

Actually, most of my music used to have descriptive titles. Aka, that "Jazz Nocturne" used to be called "lurk late, strike straight, sing sin, forever", based on a poem by Gwendolyn Brooks. And the "Snegurochka Overture" used to be called "little feet with little toes", because it was the first "track" of an "instrumental concept album" that followed a WWII soldier throughout his life (including pre-war and post-war).

Sure no one's interested in that, though. >_<