In music

Music

Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...

, the burden is an archaic term for the drone

Drone (music)

In music, a drone is a harmonic or monophonic effect or accompaniment where a note or chord is continuously sounded throughout most or all of a piece. The word drone is also used to refer to any part of a musical instrument that is just used to produce such an effect.-A musical effect:A drone...

 or bass in some musical instruments, and the pipe or part that plays it, such as a bagpipe or pedal point in an organ. Burden also refers to a part of a song that is repeated at the end of each stanza

Stanza

In poetry, a stanza is a unit within a larger poem. In modern poetry, the term is often equivalent with strophe; in popular vocal music, a stanza is typically referred to as a "verse"...

, i.e. the chorus or refrain

Refrain

A refrain is the line or lines that are repeated in music or in verse; the "chorus" of a song...

.

The term comes from the French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

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.