Burden (music)

A burden is "the choric line or lines that signal the end or the beginning of a stanza in a carol or hymn"; a type of refrain.

The burden is an archaic termfor the drone or base in some musical instruments, and the pipe or part that plays it, such as a bagpipe or pedal point in an organ.

The term comes from the French bourdon, a staff; or a pipe made in the form of a staff, imitating the gross murmurs of bees or drones.

This is what was anciently called proslambanomenos.