Songs from Women of Pan America: Songs of Amy Marcy Cheney Beach

0:10 Nacht (Night), Op. 35, no. 1 (1897)
2:39 Juni (June), Op. 51, no. 3 (1903)
4:44 Le secret (The Secret), Op. 14, no. 2 (1890)

Amy Marcy Cheney Beach (Mrs. H.H.A. Beach) (1867-1944) (USA) is a composer whose English-language songs are standard repertoire for American recitalists. For this program, Velarde chose foreign language songs of Beach’s, which take on compositional styles of composers writing in their native languages (the German is reminiscent of Richard Strauss, the French of Jules Massenet).
Born in New Hampshire to a prominent New England family, Beach was a child prodigy—memorizing forty songs at age one and teaching herself to read by age three. In 1885, she made her piano debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, playing Chopin’s Concerto in F Minor. After her marriage, she focused her musical talents on composition and was primarily self-taught through score analyses and translating works such as Berlioz’s treatise on orchestration.
Beach became the first woman to achieve widespread success as a large-scale orchestral composer, although she also devoted herself to the composition of art song—composing around 150 in total. She assumed many leadership positions, often in advancing the cause of American women composers. She was associated with the Music Teachers National Association and the Music Educators National Conference. In 1925, she was a founding member and first president of the Society of American Women Composers.
Note: Juni was composed in 1903, and the poet is noted as Erich Jansen (1897-1968). This seems to be a date mismatch (the poem written at age 6?), but I was unable to find any other dates of composition for either the poem or the piece.

Score sources: Beach, Amy Marcy. Juni, Op. 51, no. 3. https://s9.imslp.org/files/imglnks/us.... Accessed December 27, 2021.
Beach, Amy Marcy. Nacht, Op. 35, no. 1. https://s9.imslp.org/files/imglnks/us.... Accessed December 27, 2021.
Beach, Mrs. H.H.A. Le Secret, Op. 14, no. 2 in Song Album No. 1: A Cyclus of 14 Selected Songs with Pianoforte Accompaniment. Arthur P. Schmidt: New York, 1891. https://s9.imslp.org/files/imglnks/us.... Accessed December 27, 2021.

Text by Ernst Scherenberg, 1839-1905, http://worldcat.org/identities/lccn-n... Accessed December 27, 2021.
A German lyric poet, Scherenberg was a writer and critic for multiple papers. His poetry was set by multiple German composers, the most prominent being Carl Loewe.

Nacht (Night )--Translation by Rachel Velarde
It is night, the earth dreams;
In serious silence
Constellations travel
High above her in the sky.

It is night—from my soul
In deepest solitude
Come silent constellations
Of bygone times.

Text by Erich Jansen, 1897-1968, http://www.worldcat.org/identities/lc... Accessed December 27, 2021.
Erich Jansen was a pharmacist by trade. The majority of his poetry consists of narrative poems that depict scenes in a language based on romantic models in which fantasy and realism mix in an idiosyncratic manner.

Juni (June)--translation by Rachel Velarde
Oh, sunny days of June,
In the flowing, cloudless [sky]!
Colorful flowering meadows and blooming vineyards,
And, in gardens all over the land,
Sweet cherries and roses!

Sweet cherries and roses—and blooming upon the hillside
Flowering grapevines scented like mignonette!
The nights are so gentle, the days so long,
The faces so happy the faces, the singing so bright!
Life is so blissful!

The leafy arbors are full of secret sounds,
Full of quiet, whispering caresses,
Every breath of air is a wave of scent,
Everywhere are blessings, and everywhere
Sweet cherries and roses!

Text by Jules, comte de Rességuier, 1788-1862, http://worldcat.org/identities/lccn-n... Accessed December 27, 2021.

Le secret (The Secret)--translation by Rachel Velarde
Tell me, what secret does your lonely harp
nourishes for you in the waning of the day?
Tell me if your heart, revealing the mystery,
exhales a sigh of love.

If the innermost thoughts of your awakened soul
tell you to fear or to hope—
If you feel, under your fingers, a sentimental chord,
and if you sing to cry?

Tell me if with a chord, a sweeter note,
your heart is sometimes troubled—
If the suddenly absent voice is heard,
do you reply?

But no…no, say nothing: sing, sigh, cry,
hide the secret of your heart;
If you ever speak [of love]…I will have to die—
of despair or of happiness.