Multicultural music education that emphasizes the characteristics of civic education has a set of specific social-philosophical issues that can be educationally important. These issues can be explained as the Contextualism-Universalism controversy, where it connects to the tension between education through music and education in music. Furthermore, the Contextualism-Universalism controversy requires the clarification for the practice and realization of the educational purposes of multicultural music education. In order to explore the Contextualism-Universalism controversy as social-philosophical issues inherent to the purpose of multicultural music education, the researchers briefly examine a theoretical approach to the development of multicultural education and the debates of Liberalism and Communitarianism. On the basis of these examinations, the researchers analyze and interpret the Contextualism-Universalism controversy inherent to the discourse on the educational purposes of multicultural music education, and propose a possible multi-musical music education which can resolve this controversy.