The idea of developing an Integrated Music Education has a long history. In recent decades it has sparked fierce controversy and built up a contrast between 'education in music' and 'education through music'. This dichotomous understanding, however, hinders a constructive and future-oriented approach to the corresponding fields of tension in music education. In this paper a model is discussed which understands professional, cultural and personality development as interrelated aspects in which the specific interacts with the general, the generic. The assumption that music teachers teach their subject in school particularly well and sustainably if they remain interested in the references and the dialogue with the people, disciplines and cultures involved at the same time needs to be investigated.