This paper aims to discuss the foundations of Pierre Zürcher’s four-stage theory of musical development in neurotypical childhood, which is interesting because it combines Piagetian and Vygotskian concepts. His research is based on his pedagogical experience, which is close to Orff’s approach, but diverges on the use of Haeckel’s ontogeny-phylogeny recapitulation theory. He opposes three major types of reductionism by proposing a holistic theory that integrates anthropology, musicology, and child development. The concept of cultural transmission is central as the essential social role of the music educator. As a result, he rejects Piagetian functional continuity, structural discontinuity, and the idea of musical skills as a specific developmental domain. He emphasizes the role of the motivation and social context in the acquisition of musical skills. He treats music as an autonomous way of thinking, which should not be reduced to a scientific analysis in non-musical categories.
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